PFF player grades adequately reflect Redskins loss to Eagles

The Washington Redskins’ first outing in this 2017 regular season was not great. In fact, parts of it were not even good. They lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 30-17 in a contest that could be characterized as ‘backward’ when it comes to Washington’s more recent team characteristics. Since 2015, the Redskins’ offense, while not without fault, has typically been reliable about moving the ball and putting up points while the defense has been the unit that couldn’t get it done. Against the Eagles, the opposite was true.

Pro Football Focus has graded every Redskin players that took a snap yesterday and the grades adequately depict what happened in the game.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins had a difficult day. The run game could not get going, he did not have enough protection and he was sacked four times. Between the pressure on him and some of the bad decisions he made, the 42.1 grade he was given is accurate.

Other than RB Chris Thompson (72.5) and WR Ryan Grant (75.4), none of the offensive skill position players received anything over the 62.3 that TE Niles Paul earned… and he only played five snaps. This certainly reflects the lack of success of that unit.

It’s interesting that Grant had the best grade of the wideouts. Cousins has mentioned more than once that, before he won the starting job, he and Grant took many, many reps together as backups. The chemistry they have may end up being valuable this season while Terrelle Pryor and Josh Doctson work toward the same thing with the signal-caller.

As usual, left tackle Trent Williams earned the highest grade of the offensive linemen (80.6) but even his 68.1 grade for pass blocking suggests that this was an issue the entire game. Last season he had grades in the mid-to-high 80’s in this category.

The grade given to ILB Zach Brown (84.5) is, hopefully, an indication of how valuable he will be to Washington and what a great free agent signing he was. The speed he brings to the position was apparent during the game and, as he gets more comfortable with the scheme, should only get better.

CB Josh Norman’s grade (81.5) is no surprise but Bashaud Breeland’s (55.1) should have been higher.

Since preseason, the latter player has begun to show signs of his former self and, had Eagles QB Carson Wentz not been so relentless yesterday, the whole secondary’s grades might have been higher. But the defensive line must get home on some of those ‘almost’ sacks or else it leaves the secondary out there covering for too long.

CB Kendall Fuller’s grade (87.0) is appropriate seeing as how, out of all the CB’s, Fuller led with five tackles (one for a loss). He was all over the place.

Speaking of the defensive line, the interior bunch plus the edge rushers did an admirable job for this first game and, should they continue to gel and develop, could turn into a real threat to opponents. Stacy McGee and Terrell McClain anchored the group effectively.

The players that took snaps against the Eagles (less special teams and a few that were only out for a few plays) were graded as follows: